A letter, a road and some cool graphs…

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As I’m sure you all have heard by now, District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis finally released a letter of recommendation yesterday that she wrote for the son of a man who is charged in federal court with giving illegal campaign contributions to her and to other local politicians. Most of the major media organizations in the county came together and threatened to sue before she turned over the letter.

So what’s the big deal, you might ask?

inewsource — and our many other colleagues — weren’t just whining because Dumanis was keeping a letter from us. The point was actually bigger than the letter itself. The question that’s been swirling around the federal case against a Mexican billionaire who allegedly gave a Dumanis political committee $100,000 is: Just how close is the county’s chief law enforcement officer to this individual?

You have every right to know the answer to this question and the others that stem from it. Yes, Dumanis won re-election outright in June. But that doesn’t mean all of us should stop asking questions about people who befriend local officials and may expect something in return.

inewsource is committed to holding government and other powerful officials accountable to the taxpayers. Joining this potential lawsuit was a way to put our money where our mouth is.

Cheance Adair leads the Team Survivor Sea Dragons as they put their boat in the water on Fiesta Island. July 1, 2014. Credit: Guillermo Sevilla/KPBS.

Road closures…

are always a way to get attention. And yesterday, KPBS reporter Claire Trageser — with editing from inewsource — took a look at what we heard was controversy over closing the road that encircles Fiesta Island for athletic events. Organizations apply for and pay for permits, and the city closes the road for a few early hours so cyclists and/or runners don’t wind up jockeying with cars for the road.

The city cut down the number of road closure permits it issues in response to complaints, which we couldn’t track down. And believe me, Claire tried.

If you’ve got insight, we’d love to hear about it. Click here to read the story.

Charts and graphs…

are sometimes the best way to tell a story. And because inewsource loves data, loves analyzing it and loves showing it off, we took a story about Californians’ attitudes toward economic inequality and broke it down in colored bar charts.

Data always leads to more questions, especially when it’s generated from a poll. We’ll continue to take the pulse on this information, particularly since it could illuminate the debate here over raising the minimum wage.